Brian Till took over less than a year ago at Xavier University’s business school, but he’s already making big changes.

Till, 52, is making the MBA program cheaper and faster for students to complete and he’s tying more programs and classes to what businesses are seeking from prospective employees. How does he know? He’s spending a ton of time meeting with business leaders in an effort to connect Xavier students with Cincinnati’s business community through things like mentorships and internships.

In fact, Till is so busy that when I caught up with him, he was barely able to squeeze time between one meeting and a lunch presentation. It was obvious with Till’s schedule that he doesn’t spend a whole lot of time sitting in his small office near the entrance to Smith Hall, where the business school is located

Till replaced Ali Malekzadeh, who left in summer 2011 for Kansas State University, as dean of Xavier University’s Williams College of Business. Till is single and lives downtown. The former Purina brand manager came to Xavier from Saint Louis University, where he spent 17 years, most recently as chair of the marketing department.

Till’s work is cut out for him, with college costs soaring and finances tight. And he has to worry about students finding jobs in a slow economy.

“If you send a child to Xavier and there’s a good chance he’ll get hired in four years, that resonates with people,” said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager at downtown investment advisory firm Bahl & Gaynor who is a Xavier alum and mentor, and serves on two advisory boards there.

What attracted you to Xavier? I was ready for a bigger challenge, particularly the opportunity to provide some leadership for a large organization. Staying within the Jesuit university system was a huge plus. And I felt comfortable that Cincinnati had good support from the business community.

What are your goals? We’re working on improving the competitiveness of our MBA program. Strengthening the undergraduate experience is important. We’re working on ways to do that. And we’ve been focused on the development of a strategic plan for the college. We’re on the tail end of completing that.

How are you accomplishing these tasks? With the MBA program, we’ve been focused on streamlining the program to reduce the time and cost for the students. With the regular MBA program, we’re reducing the number of credit hours required for prepared students. With our executive MBA program, we’re exploring ways to have it be less about this subject and that subject and a little more about the integration of these business functions. With the undergraduate experience, we’re putting a greater emphasis on experiential learning, not just having students study about business but have them engage in the practice of business. That can include more projects in the classroom and internships.

What are you doing to maintain and build ties to the business community? I’ve spent a fair amount of time simply meeting people at businesses. We also make extensive use of advisory boards. We have a mentoring program that pairs our students with professionals.

You have a mix of business and academic experience. How does that help you? Given my marketing and branding background, I’m sensitive to how we differentiate the Williams College of Business and what we want that brand to represent.

The hire rate of your students is pretty high. How do you keep it up in this economy? More than 90 percent of our undergraduate students within six months of graduation are satisfactorily employed or off to graduate school. I consider that excellent. It is a goal to keep that high, and one way we do that is through our business professions program. Our students take seminars and workshops that help prepare them for gaining employment.

What’s changing with the program? We will be working on ways to infuse experiential learning in a stronger way. And we’ll be exploring specialized master’s degrees. There’s a market interest there. Typically they involve fewer credit hours, which lowers the time and cost. Examples are master’s degrees in market research or finance.

How will you measure your success?

My success is tied to the success of the college. That means our students are well-educated, they’re able to succeed after their degree is finished, that faculty have opportunity for development and that the reputation of the Williams College of Business is strong in the Cincinnati area.